Everyone should now be aware about some of the internal changes at Pets Alive.  Joy and Ken Carson (pictured on the right) will be leaving Pets Alive Westchester. Joy, the Executive Director and Ken, the Shelter & Facilities Manager move on to kick off Pets Alive Puerto Rico.  Jenessa Taylor, formerly the Executive Administrator and Shelter Manager here at Pets Alive Middletown is stepping up to take over the reins at PAW (Pets Alive Westchester).
Jenessa is great, and she will do wonderfully.  I know she has to be nervous right now.  Westchester is a massive facility. Two to three times the size of Pets Alive Middletown in capacity for animals and staff and budget. It’s a lot to take on and I know that Jen has to be nervous about this.  I know I would be.  🙂  But at least for Jen a lot of the most difficult work there has been done.
Let me tell you a little story. When we first took over the Elmsford Animal Shelter I will admit – I was against it.  Believe it or not I was the only board member that voted NO to taking it over. Hey look, we all have our moments of weakness.  Right off the heels of rebuilding Pets Alive Middletown, knowing how hard it was, how much work it was, how much stress and pain and emotion – I was gun shy at believing we could do it again.  And with Pets Alive Middletown we had Best Friends to help us.  They brought trained staff, lots of money, tons of support, they had all the answers, they knew what they were doing.
We only had three years under our belt.  Could we really take over an organization that had no programs in place, a staff that had not been well trained, no money at ALL in their coffers, 1100 animals, many in horrible, terrible conditions, and the monthly outlay was $125,000??  Yes.  Seriously.  You heard me right.  They were spending $125,000 a MONTH and had no money at all.  They were three months away from shutting down, that was all the money there was.  They had no email list, no mailing list for donors, no donation program, no fund raising, no offsite events, no adoption program…..NOTHING.  And just three months of money, At Pets Alive Middletown we only had about $85,000 in the bank.  I thought we had to be crazy to take this on.  CRAZY.  Especially if I was the one to have to do most of the work!!!  (Yeah, I know but hey, remember I already had a full time job running Middletown, so cut me some slack, will ya? I couldn’t imagine finding any more hours in my day).  But the board thought we could do it and so we did. Crazy?  Yes.  Risky?  Very. Frightening? Terrifying.
So we threw ourselves into it. I remember talking to Nathan Winograd once about taking over a previously existing shelter and he said that in most cases you wind up firing 1/3 of the staff because they can’t get with the new program.  They are too ensconced in the old ways and can’t change, or won’t change, and they become major obstacles to your success.  This was true.  Within weeks we had to let go of about 1/3 of the staff for the sheer negativity and the constant hurdles they threw at us, the outright refusal to do things a new way or the fact that they simply had no ethics when it came to animals. Nathan went on to say that 1/3 of the staff would leave on their own and 1/3 would rise and shine! Again he was right on.  We fired 1/3 of the staff and another 1/3 within the next couple of months left on their own.  They disagreed with us, they didn’t like the re-org, they didn’t believe in no-kill – whatever their reasons they left.  And the last 1/3 is still with us.  Shining.  They picked up the ball and they ran with it.  They blew through obstacles, they held our hands and walked us through getting to know all the animals, they worked long hours, they dealt with stress and frustration and difficulty.  And they shined. They are still shining.  We are grateful to them every single day. Without them, we may not have succeeded. (Special thanks especially to Mara and Christian).
So after months of stuttering stops and starts, Joy and I had a discussion.  Joy was already on our board of directors.  She knew Pets Alive inside and out. She loved us. We loved her.  Every task she had ever undertaken for Pets Alive was done well and far exceeded our expectations.  Would she, could she, might she, consider taking over Pets Alive Westchester as the Executive Director?
Joy already had a good job, making a great salary.  We enticed her in by offering her about half that salary. See?  We know how to bargain!  We said, hey we can’t really pay you anything at all, and you’ll be working twice as many hours as you did in your other job, and you’ll have a long commute, and emotionally you’ll go home crying every night, but it will get better and hey look over here – PUPPY BREATH!  And so that was it, she accepted.  Who could blame her. (OK, at that point I did start to wonder about her intelligence, but then again I did the same thing.  Took this job for about a third of my previous salary and I didn’t think I was an idiot.  Maybe Joy wasn’t either! ). And so Joy became the Executive Director.  And life at Pets Alive Westchester did a 180.  The staff got much needed training and organization. The animals started receiving medical care and attention.  All the animals came out of cages and into healthier and stimulating environments. Offsite events and volunteer coordination got off the ground.  Fund raising was started. Supporters were approached and asked for help. The paperwork was organized and the bills got paid.  Joy got the monthly expenses to a more manageable level. She brought Ken in as the facility and adoption manager.  Ken took adoptions from 1-5 animals a week to soaring over 15-30 a week in a snap. Senior animals were flying out the door.  Donations were up.  Volunteers were coming in droves. Wow. Could this thing really work?  Could we really save the Elmsford Shelter? Yes. Joy did that. Joy did ALL of that. Yes she had a staff, yes she had volunteers, yes, she had Ken who was instrumental in putting everything on the right track, but Joy was the force behind it all. Making tough choices and difficult decisions every single day.  Going home crying and hurt and wounded, yet still getting up again the next day and coming back in and doing it all again.
In the past year Joy and I have become very good friends. Everyone has someone in their life that THEY look to for support or for help or as a mentor or idol.  Even though Joy came “after” me into Pets Alive, she is the person I look up to.  She is the person that I talk to when I’m unsure of a decision.  When I’m anxious, stressed, nervous, or scared. Yes I get scared.  Hey, a lot of animals depend on us.  We can’t screw up.  We have to make the right decisions.  Sometimes it can be overwhelming.  Joy is always the voice of reason.  The steadying hand.  The calming factor.  She makes me laugh when there isn’t anything to laugh about.  She holds me up when I feel like I’m faltering. She is such a force in the world of animal welfare, love, commitment and care.  I learn something from her every day.  She is brilliant and personable.  She is tough and stubborn.  She is efficient and organized. She is humble and self deprecating. She never gives up, she never gives in, she never doesn’t believe.  She always KNOWS we can do it.  She always just “does it”.
Is everything perfect now at Westchester? No. We are still deep in the red.  We still need more financial support.  We still need more of the “legacy animals” placed (animals still there from the “old” days, some which were born there and are still there ten years later), we still need more medical care for the animals, we still need facility improvements.  This is where Jen will come in, and shine.  She takes over a well oiled machine now.  A machine that still needs an engineer and a mechanic, but that now runs again.
And as to Joy and Ken?  Who better to go into the unknown?  Into Puerto Rico with all the challenges there, and start a fresh new world of life saving?  Who better than these two amazing people to work more miracles and work more magic.  I just can’t wait to see what they do with Puerto Rico.  I can’t wait to see them shine there. But I will miss Joy very much.  I will miss our light hearted banter.  I will miss her warm hugs when the world seems to be falling down.  I will miss her easy laughter and quick come backs.  I will miss my friend. Thank you Joy for saving Pets Alive Westchester and making it what it is today.  Thank you for lifting me up when I needed a friend.  Thank you for all the love you have given to Pets Alive and to your staff.  And thank you for taking on Pets Alive Puerto Rico.  There isn’t anyone else in the world I think could succeed like you two will there. I can’t wait to see the deprived, starved, abused and beaten animals of Puerto Rico fall into your loving and caring arms, and to watch their transformation.  I am so sad for us to be saying goodbye to you, and so happy for them that they get to have you.
Good luck my friend.
You leave with all our admiration and love and hopes for the future.
Go git em.
I’ll miss you.